The present invention relates in general to gastrostomies providing long term enteral feeding, and more particularly to a device and method for measuring the length of a tract or passage from a viscera to the skin, for example, the placement of a low profile gastrostomy appliance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,014, owned by the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, discloses an installation package and method for placing a low profile gastrostomy appliance into an incised tract or passage extending between the outer surface of a patient's skin and the inner wall of the patient's stomach. Low profile gastrostomy appliances are well known in the art as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,438, also owned by the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
The length of the tract or passage into which the gastrostomy appliance will be installed will vary from patient to patient. Therefore, in order to properly size an appliance to fit the recipient patient it is necessary to determine the length of the tract or passage. Variations in tract or passage length are due primarily to differences in the abdominal wall thickness between the patient's skin and stomach wall. A patient's age, sex and weight are key factors affecting wall thickness. Once the length of the tract or passage has been measured, an appropriately sized gastrostomy device of the low profile type or another type feeding device can be selected and.. then installed in the tract or passage,
A device for providing the above-noted tract or passage length measurement should be simple to use, low in cost and preferably disposable. The associated method should be time efficient and should minimize the trauma caused to the patient.